Read-only access (hide a portion of the config)

Question

Is there a way to alloww read-only access to only a portion of the config.  I have customers who are requesting read-only access, but i don't want them seeing portions of the config. 
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks

Answer 1

If they have an enable level login they will be able to see the whole configuration (absent encrypted passwords assuming you're using service password-encryption).
You can make logins more granular and prevent customers from having, say, the ability to execute arbitrary commands such as "show run". You could, for instance setup a given user to only be alllowed to execute "show interface status" etc. NX-OS has this ability pretty much 'baked-in'. For IOS-based systems, a bit more work is required.
Here is a guide for how to do it if you use TACACS for AAA:
https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-15765
If you're using local authentication, you can do similar things using either privilege levels or cli views:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2t/12_2t13/feature/guide/ftprienh.html
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_3t/12_3t7/feature/guide/gtclivws.html
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/57553
Hope this helps.